Project information

Keepers of the Wild 2013-2014

World Land Trust’s conservation partners worldwide are managing vast areas of wilderness with few resources. By funding reserve wardens we can ensure active protection of these reserves and enable habitat restoration while providing employment opportunities in remote communities.

Charity information: World Land Trust

Need

WLT purchases and protects threatened habitats, such as tropical forests and wetlands, crucial for the survival of endangered species. Following the creation of reserve areas, active protection and regular patrolling is needed to prevent incursions and damage. Our project partners are often co-ordinating these activities over an enormous area and are logistically and financially stretched as greater areas of land come under their management.

Solution

This project will ensure effective protection of WLT-funded reserves by providing our partners with the means to employ and equip rangers at as many reserves as possible. Rangers are usually recruited from the local community, have a very good knowledge of the local forest, and in many cases have no other opportunities for employment. Regular patrols and the involvement of local communities make it possible for our partners to provide effective protection for the land.

Success will be shown directly through numbers of new trees planted, and in the overall improvement of forest habitat, in turn improving wildlife populations.

Aim 3

To assist partners in building organisational capacity and opportunities in sustainable development.

Activities

» This aim will be acheived through:
1) Providing technical support and training opportunities to all staff members, including rangers. » 2) Providing opportunities for staff to undertake exchange visits with other projects, to learn about new conservation techniques.

Success will be shown through the growth and diversity in the partner organisations' on-site activities, which will in turn, aid habitat restoration and biodiversity populations.

Impact

Regular patrolling of reserves will make illegal settlement, logging or poaching less likely to occur. This will enable the recovery of depleted populations of wildlife, the return of more sensitive species to the areas involved and the regeneration of degraded habitats.

Long-term success for the project will be demonstrated through regular biological monitoring by NGO partners and the rangers themselves, showing the increase in species number and diversity as protection is increased.

Risk

Risks to the project include:

• Insufficient funding. WLT will commit to supporting as many rangers as possible with the funds raised.

• Problems relating to fire-arms. No WLT funded rangers are armed. Even though some hunters or loggers carry fire-arms themselves, they are less likely to use them knowing this.

WLT's strong relationship with its network of partners will help alleviate other problems they may encounter and provide expertise and support.

Reporting

WLT already reports to donors through personal letters, printed newsletters, and through its website and electronic Bulletins. For donors of large amounts WLT can develop a reporting programme designed to suit their requirements.

Current Funding / Pledges

Location

Keepers of the Wild will fund the active protection of critical forest reserves in: Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Malaysian Borneo, Mexico, Paraguay, Philippines, Venezuela and Zambia. It is hoped that if additional funds are raised, WLT will fund wardens in Colombia, one of the more recent projects that has been initiated for creating nature reserves.

Beneficiaries

The main beneficiary of this project will be the wildlife and habitats protected, achieved through Overseas partners. Local communities also benefit from employment opportunities and sustainable development activities, such as environmentally sensitive tourism. Local communities also benefit indirectly from ecological services provided by a healthy ecosystem, such as clean drinking water.

Why Us?

The World Land Trust has unique experience of working with a wide network of conservation NGOs worldwide, helping establish and fund land purchase and protection since 1989. Through the assistance of WLT, these NGOS have been able to purchase and protect nearly 500,000 acres of threatened habitat as well as undertaking habitat restoration activities. WLT creates long-term links with its partner organisations and co-ordinates regular discussion and knowledge exchange between them.